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2019: This blog was ranked #50 in top 100 blogs about adoption. Let's make it #1...

2019: WE NEED A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission in the US now for the Adoption Programs that stole generations of children... Goldwater Institute's work to dismantle ICWA is another glaring attempt at cultural genocide.

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Friday, March 1, 2019

15 years later, how much changed #ICWA Brackeen v. Bernhardt

UPDATE

15 years already? How I changed...but has adoption perception changed?

By Trace Hentz, ADOPTEE ACTIVIST

If you had asked me in 2004 or 2014 what I had planned for myself, I would
have not said “writing” about adoption, child trafficking, Indian Adoption
Programs/Projects, the 60s Scoop, Stolen Generations and Cultural Genocide
research.

As an adoptee, I'd attended the first Wiping the Tears ceremony in Wisconsin
and met the organizers Sandy White Hawk (an adoptee) and
elder Chris Leith. Then my world changed.
I'd learn more hidden history.

How adoption affected me: I'd never told my story of opening my adoption while
I lived it. A few friends knew details but not all of it. I got the idea for a
book when I wrote an article in 2005 about stolen generations of North American
Indian children placed for adoption with non-Indian parents. That article,
"Generation after Generation, We are Coming Home" was published in Talking
Stick magazine in New York City and then in News from Indian Country
in Wisconsin. It took me down a path I never expected.

I'd find new information, new history, meet new adoptees, and grow more
concerned.*

It's true many bloggers hoped we made a strong and lasting impression,
to impact and end the propaganda since the early 2000s. I am not sure we can
actually gauge or measure how world views of adoption have changed. (If books
on Amazon are an indication, memoirs by adoptees are now climbing the
ranks over all the propaganda books about how to buy/adopt a baby.)

It's also true some blogger friends stopped blogging on adoption out of pure
exhaustion!

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

If the statistics on adoption are any indication,
the number of babies adopted by Americans are dropping each and every
year. There is definitely a BIG demand for infants (primarily because of infertility) but there remains a short supply of newborns/babies to
adopt. (I do think the adoption traffickers are constantly
reinventing new ways to grab a fresh supply of infants.

Indian
Country has lived through this over a century with forced assimilation, child snatching and
disappearing children. The government's motive: take more LAND (or what is on or under the land). Targeting children, the future of Indian Country, was obvious.

White people believe they deserve the right to adopt without considering the best needs of the Native child who is sovereign and future of their tribal nation.

The Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, litigation
organization and veteran opponent of ICWA, joined the Brackeen lawsuit in 2018 to challenge the federal law ICWA. (Use the search
bar on this website and use keyword: Goldwater.) Brackeen v. Bernhardt isa lawsuit brought by
Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, and individual plaintiffs, who allege ICWA—a
federal statute that has been in effect for more than 40 years and has
helped thousands of Native children maintain ties to their families and
their tribes—is unconstitutional.

ICWA only applies to
citizens of federally recognized tribes. Indeed, the statute has no
application unless an “Indian child” is at issue, and “Indian child” is
defined as “Any unmarried person under the age of 18 and is either (a) a
member of an Indian tribe or (b) is eligible for membership in an
Indian tribe and is the biological child of a member of an Indian
tribe.“ The act is directly and inextricably linked to citizenship in a
sovereign nation.

*A
couple night ago I wrote several pages of notes of what I would say to
the Brackeens about this Navajo child they wish to adopt and how their
legal actions seek to undermine his sovereignty and the future of ICWA. (I will publish these thoughts soon.)

PROBLEMS ADOPTING

What I’d hoped would change is the overall perception
of closed adoptions, how it’s not as great for adoptees as most people were made to believe. PAPS (potential adoptive parents) (the Saviors and Do-Gooders) have the common "saving the child mentality" which the billion dollar adoption industry banks on... The adoption industry still prefers newborns, hoping the younger the child is, a baby will bond better with the strangers who adopt them. (Again, that is a proven fallacy. No matter the age, adoptees will have issues: such as severe narcissist injury
or post-traumatic stress disorder. There is new science called birth psychology
so I read studies about adoptees in treatment for identity issues, reactive
attachment disorder (RAD), depression and suicidal thoughts.)

The idea of an OPEN ADOPTION was a strong indication that times and opinions were changing but already…they are failing too. Some children have been re-homed or un-adopted in what they call Failed Adoption.

This is a quote I
saved about open adoption:

…ignored by the adoption agencies is the reality of “open
adoption.” Only 22 of fifty states in America recognize open adoption
agreements, but failure of the adoptive parents to comply with the
agreement is not legally enforceable by the surrendering mother.

As countries such as Guatemala and China close their international adoption programs or implement strict new rules, the pool of adoptable babies has shrunk dramatically in recent years, leading to a rise in more challenging types of adoption of older or disabled children that are more likely to end in dissolution.

HOW ADOPTION REALLY WORKS

A quote by adoptee-author-blogger Elle Cuardaigh:

And
adoption certainly is “worked.” When supply of newborns decreased in the
1970s, the adoption industry had to put a new spin on relinquishment
to stay in business. Since women could not be so easily shamed by
single motherhood, they changed tactics. Potential suppliers (pregnant
women) are now encouraged to “make an adoption plan.” She reads the
“Dear Birthmother” letters and interviews hopeful adoptive parents. She
is provided with medical care and possibly even housing. She is
promised this is her choice, and that she can have ongoing contact with
her child in an open adoption. It would seem she has all the power, but
she is being systematically conditioned to accept her role, her place.
She doesn’t want to hurt the baby’s “real parents,” feels indebted to
them, emotionally invested. She is soon convinced they are better than
she is. She becomes “their birthmother.” It almost guarantees
relinquishment.

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Please: Share your reaction, your thoughts, and your opinions. Be passionate, be unapologetic. Offensive remarks will not be published. We are getting more and more spam. Comments will be monitored. Use the comment form at the bottom of this website which is private and sent direct to Trace.

Survivors, write your stories. Write your parents stories. Write the elders stories. Do not be swayed by the colonizers to keep quiet. Tribal Nations have their own way of keeping stories alive.... Trace

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Diane Tells His Name

Please support NARF

Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

where were you adopted?

To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

Join!

National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network (NISCWN)

Membership Application Form

The Network is open to all Indigenous and Foster Care Survivors any time.

ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.

This has happened to many, many Native children! We must protect ICWA and enforce it so that it stops! Even non-Native families that are not racist cannot provide a Native child with cultural knowledge and belonging. Only their tribes can do that. #ProudtoProtectICWAhttps://t.co/oA1e5kiK4k

A4: Twenty-one states filed an amicus brief in this case in support of #ICWA. These states, which are home to over 70 percent of tribal nations, know that ICWA helps them better serve Native children and families.#ProudtoProtectICWA

TWO WORLDS Book 1 (second edition)

Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

We are #50 in the world?

Every. Day.

adoptees take back adoption narrative and reject propaganda

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